LEWISTON — Edward Little showed the patience that head coach Elaine Derosby was looking for, and the Red Eddies finally started scoring the second and third times through the order against Lewiston starter Gemma Landry.

Lewiston coach Ryan Cormier wanted his team to keep battling in his first time coaching against the neighboring rival, and the Blue Devils did that, but fell short in their comeback bid. Edward Little held on for the 4-2 victory in a KVAC Class A North softball game at Joseph Deschenes Field on Monday.

The game was supposed to be the Blue Devils’ debut on their new home field, Fleurette Roux Bannon Softball Field, but rain in the forecast caused the game to move over to Lewiston’s new turf baseball field.

Like the cloudy skies filled with rain overhead, both teams threatened in the first inning.

Madison Emmert led off the game with a walk and Caroline Hammond followed with a fielder’s choice grounder to put two on, but the Blue Devils (0-3) got out of a jam — that was made more frightening with a passed ball — with a fly out and a groundout that was capped off by first baseman Skylar Gelinas gunning down Emmert at home to end the inning.

“I think the team responded well when we got out of the jam defensively,” Cormier said.

Red Eddies (2-1) starter Chantel Ouellette looked to have an easier first inning than her pitching counterpart, starting with a leadoff groundout by Landry, followed by a strikeout. But an error kept Lewiston’s inning alive. Jordyn Rubin then stole second, moved to third on a passed ball, and Kali Voss followed by walking on 3-2 pitch and stealing second as well. Ouellette finally got the third out with a strikeout looking.

Derosby said Ouellette isn’t a typical strikeout pitcher, but she did hit her spots Monday, and kept pitches down near the knees where Derosby wanted them to be.

One of the few times she didn’t keep a pitch down came an inning later when Hopper slapped a triple into center with one out. But Ouellette was able to induce a liner, then a grounder after issuing a walk, to get out of another jam. She was able to strand runners in scoring position again in the third and fifth innings.

“She was phenomenal,” Derosby said. “She pitched as well as we could have asked her today.”

The EL bats went quiet in the second, but woke back up in the third to start the scoring. Alexis Downs led off with a hard single off the third baseman’s glove, then after Landry picked up her only strikeout, Emmert reached on a fielder’s choice, with Downs safe at second. Hammond dropped down a dribbling bunt that stopped quickly on the turf, allowing her to reach on a single and loading the bases. McKenzi Horton then drove in Downs with a fielder’s choice.

Landry got out of another bases-loaded jam two batters later.

Downs drove in EL’s second run an inning later, doubling home Abby Russell, who had singled just before. However, Downs tried stretching her extra-base hit into a triple, and was gunned down at the hot corner.

Leadoff hits in each of the next two EL innings led to two more runs. Emmert opened the fifth with an infield single, then Hammond dropped down another bunt hit. Consecutive groundouts scored Emmert, but Hammond was tagged out at home on some baserunning miscommunication.

“We learned some things today that we maybe have to read the runner in front of us,” Derosby said. “But we’ve asked them to be aggressive, so we can’t take that away from them, if they are trying to do what we’re asking them to do. And we’ve asked them to be aggressive, to use our team speed.”

The Red Eddies scored their final run more on power than speed. Anna LeBlanc tripled leading off, which was the end of Landry’s day in the circle. Then Isabelle Cormier came on and was greeted with Russell’s RBI single.

“Gemma did what she was asked to do. You know, that last inning she said ‘Coach, I want to do one more.’ I said ‘OK, but you just know the situation where I’ll bring you out if you need to,’ and she’s a competitor,” Cormier said. “And Iz came on and did her job, shut the door, and held us in it.”

Cormier got the three outs she needed after that, keeping it a 4-0 game heading into the bottom of the fourth.

That’s when the Blue Devils tried mounting their comeback.

Voss singled to lead off, then Charlotte Cloutier looped a single into right-center. A fielder’s choice forced out Voss at third, but Cloutier and Gelinas both moved into scoring position on a wild pitch. Both came home on Hopper’s sacrifice bunt — with Gelinas taking advantage of an error to score.

“No matter what happened we were going to battle until the end, and I believe that’s what we did,” Cormier said.

Ouellette got out of the inning with a comebacker, then threw a 1-2-3 seventh to close out the game, including ending it with her eighth and final strikeout.

“You know, with our summer stuff I kind of leave her out there for three or four (or) five walks to toughen her up,” Derosby said. “And I think in those situations that has helped her today, to be able to come back and say ‘I’ve got to do this job now.'”

wkramlich@sunjournal.com